When you hear people talk about how much the marijuana industry helps our local economy, you should remember that what’s “good for the economy,” these days, is really bad for you, our community, and the environment. Whether you build nuclear power-plants, frack for natural gas, make wine or produce black market marijuana, practically everything we do to pump-up the economy, destroys the environment, enslaves the community and kills people. The economy has simply gotten way too big.

After generations of mindlessly pumping-up the economy, we seem to have forgotten that the economy is supposed to serve our needs. Of course we need an economy of some sort, and up to a point, economic activity is a good thing. Up to a point, economic activity puts food on the table and keeps a roof over people’s heads. Up to a point, the rising tide of economic growth raises all boats, but beyond that point, economic growth becomes a tidal bore that destroys everything in its path. We have passed that point.

Look at us. We’ve gotten used to the violent crime, social problems and environmental devastation that come with the terrible racist injustice of the War on Drugs. We know it’s wrong, but now we’re afraid to let it go, because it might hurt the economy. We’d rather have dangerous violent criminals and homeless drug addicts on our streets, and let racist cops prey on people of color all over this country, than risk a possible downturn in the local economy. Could we possibly get any more depraved? …or stupid? What is so valuable about “the economy” that we’re willing to sacrifice our humanity, our community and our planet to protect it? Can’t you feel the economy tightening its grip on you, every day, wrapping its coils around you like a python and squeezing the life out of you? Why would you want to make it bigger?

Think about it. For the economy to grow, it has to get better at prying money out of your pocket. Think about how hard you have to work already, just to put food on the table and keep a roof over your head. If you have that much money, these days, you are doing OK, but how does it help you if those things cost three percent more next year?

If you have a little more money than that, you probably have a long list of stuff that you want to buy. It’s not like people don’t already like to spend money, or that there aren’t enough things to spend it on, but as the cost of housing and food goes up by three percent every year, the amount of other stuff you can afford, goes down, so that doesn’t really grow the economy. To keep the economy growing, you have to find ways to force people to spend more than they want to spend on things they can’t afford to do without.

That’s why the health care industry has become so critical to economic growth. As people weigh the costs and benefits of working longer hours vs eating lower quality food vs going homeless, their health suffers, whichever decision they make. Deteriorating health, then motivates people to work more hours, eat lower quality food or go without housing in order to afford expensive medications. These medications have a higher profit margin than either housing or food, and in many cases, people feel a stronger and more visceral need for them, than they do for other basic necessities. As people find themselves unable to afford wholesome food and adequate housing, those high profit margins on drugs that people can’t live without, keep the economy growing, but it sure doesn’t make life better for people.

Now that so many of us are already maxed-out, economically, it becomes more important than ever, if you want to grow the economy, that is, to exploit the failing health of every American, effectively, efficiently, and most of all, profitably. Moreover, food and housing must become less affordable, and attainable, so that more young, healthy, people, do without. That way, they get sick sooner, and become so desperate for drugs that they’ll sacrifice their homes and nutrition to the more upscale, luxury market, who can afford to pay more. That’s what economic growth has planned for you, so don’t get too excited about it.

Greed is a disease. It’s a sickness of the soul that destroys and consumes the people infected with it as surely as greedy people destroy and consume the community and environment around them. No matter how much they have, they still feel that lack, that missing something, that drives them to acquire more. For many, what they lack is self-respect, and all of the drug money in the world won’t buy that for them.

Whatever the cause, greedy people have a weakness of the spirit that makes them endlessly needy, but rather than treat them as though they need rehabilitation, we glorify that sickness, celebrate it, consider it a God-given right, and take pride in it as American citizens. Greed gave us President Donald Trump, nationally, and greed made us love the War on Drugs locally.

You cannot build strong communities with sick, weak, greedy people, and this economy makes us sicker, weaker and greedier every day. Everywhere I look, I see desperate people struggling to keep their heads above water, while they step over, and often kick their poor neighbors who have already gone under. Whether you are treading water, sinking, or have already hit bottom, the economy is where we are all going to drown if we don’t find a way to stop this disease.

When we care more about making the economy grow than we do about the people in our community, we have clearly lost our way. The greedy will always want more, and that desperation will destroy us all unless we stop it. Greed is a disease that preys upon the weak. The strong know that everything they need is available to them and have plenty to share. We need more strong people in our community, more than we need a strong economy.

To have strong people in our community, they need to be able to put food on their table and a roof over their head at a price that doesn’t make them work themselves to death, or do something they’re ashamed of. Thanks to the War on Drugs, we have entirely too many people around here who are all too eager to do things we should all be deeply ashamed of. Don’t let them contaminate your thinking with their sick, twisted logic. The economy isn’t helping you one bit, and anyone who says they are helping the economy, really means that they are helping the economy fuck you over. Don’t do anything to make it easier for them.

Can you think of anything more boring than the Humboldt Co. General Plan Update. Tonight, on KMUD’s newest and dullest talk show, The Hum CPR Show, we got yet another tiresome talking-to on this tedious topic.

We’ve debated the General Plan Update for about 7 years already, wasting hundred of hours of airtime and enough column inches of newsprint to reach the moon, and we aren’t any closer to agreement on it than we were 7 years ago.

Listening to developers, real estate agents and land-owners try to sound righteous about what they do to the land out here can really turn your stomach. Hearing the county try to justify their outrageous permit fees, as a health and safety issue, when they refuse to permit composting toilets, or greywater systems of any kind, will make you choke as well.

None of the people in the debate seem to have a clue about how to live on planet Earth. None of the proposed plans really address Humboldt County’s housing needs. None of the proposed plans will allow anyone in Humboldt County, the opportunity to live anything like a sustainable lifestyle, and none of the proposed plans will enjoy any more voluntary compliance than the current General Plan. As long as they continue to outlaw sustainable living, only outlaws will live sustainably.

The General Plan Update is bound to fail, and fail spectacularly, for a few good reasons. For one, roughly 2,000 people in Humboldt County go without housing or sanitary facilities of any kind. Every day, that number continues to grow. The GPU continues to ignore the needs of this population, and as a result, they will continue to ignore the zoning restrictions of the General Plan, by sleeping, living and relieving themselves whenever and wherever they can.

Tens of thousands of Humboldt County residents, including many, many, landowners live in unpermitted structures, trailers or mobile homes in violation of current General Plan zoning restrictions, but the county lacks resources to prosecute these cases. Just because the county adopts a new General Plan, doesn’t mean they will ever get the money to prosecute these cases in the future.

Finally, since most of what the Planning Department does, is respond to people’s complaints about their neighbors. And since most of those complaints have less to do with health and safety than aesthetics, prejudice and personal disputes, it seems to me that the best thing to do, is close the whole thing down. Stop wasting the taxpayer’s money on petty, vindictive complaints by people who cynically use the County Planning Department to harass their neighbors.

Since the process isn’t working, won’t work, and won’t help, it ought to be more entertaining, and it ought to, at least superficially, reflect what really happens on the ground in Humboldt County. So, I offer these:

New Zoning Designations for the

Humboldt County General Plan Update

First, a few desperately needed and long overdue, zoning designations:

CMR – Commercial Masquerading as Residential, describes those neighborhoods full of “homes” with bicycles and swingsets in the yard, and laundry on the clothesline, but no one lives inside but marijuana plants and spider-mites.

PLR – Parking Lot, Residential These days lots of people live in their vehicle. From converted school buses to “house-bicycles” people, often entire families, have pressed all kinds of vehicles into their primary residence. Still, they all need a place to park for the night. Isn’t it time they had a zone of their own?

UBR – Under Bridge, Residential Some cities already issue permits, for a fee, allowing very low income people to use the prime real estate beneath highway overpasses as their primary residence. Can Humboldt afford to ignore this revenue stream?

DFR – Debris Field, Residential Many of the homesteads in SoHum contain not a single permitted structure. At first look, many do not appear to include a single habitable space, just acres of junk cars, rubbish and debris, but people live there.

DFC – Debris Field, Commercial Many of Humboldt County’s most profitable businesses operate out of the most squalid surroundings. Humboldt County’s economic engine has never been exactly clean.

OLG – On Line Ghetto Block after block of towering concrete housing projects full of 8’x8′ cells, each containing a bed, a toilet and a high-speed internet connection with unlimited bandwidth.

The following “specialty zones” will help foster harmony in special neighborhoods catering to the diversity of Humboldt County lifestyles.

CCL – Competitive Christmas Lights Won’t it be so much easier to decide who has the most impressive display when all of the Christmas light fanatics live in the same neighborhood.

DD + EP – Dangerous Dogs and Exotic Pets Why not put all the pit-bulls in the same neighborhood with the idiots who keep tigers, chimps and pythons.

BYOB – Bring Your Own Birds Backyard chickens, ducks, geese pigeons, flamingos, falcons and peacocks all have their appeal, but they also create a special burden on a neighborhood. In this zone, they can squawk, honk, crow and shit whenever and wherever they please.

CG – Compulsive Gardeners Are you sick and tired of neighbors who can’t just leave the fucking dirt alone? I know I sure am, but they just keep digging it up and planting shit in it. Soon their whole place becomes an overgrown, water-sucking jungle, and they start dumping their excess zucchini and tomatoes on your doorstep. Get them out of your hair by giving them their own zone where they can plow, till and weed to their heart’s content, and they can let their vegetables rot in their own fridge.

DYM – Dope Yuppie Mansion A zone for the successful dope yuppies among us, where they can build the kind of ostentatious country home that doesn’t belong in Connecticut either.

PS – Pot Squat This zone is for all of the substandard housing, adjacent to commercial marijuana operations, occupied by otherwise unemployed tenants.

RHH – Redneck Hell Hole The place to see NASCAR decals, confederate flags and Calvin peeing on stuff. Cars on blocks, refrigerators on the porch and motorcycle repair in the living room are all accepted in this zone.

HA+D – Hanging Around and Drinking Always a popular activity here in Humboldt County, now people will have an acceptable zone to do it in.

SS – Smoking Section Smokers really take it on the chin lately. I see them cowering under the eves in the rain, outside the back door, fondling their butts. Shouldn’t they have a zone where they can all commit slow suicide together.

M+M – Musicians and Meth fiends. Both of these groups tend to keep odd hours and make a lot of racket. Why not zone them together?

DPS – Discarded Potting Soil This zone designates new land created by the accumulation of discarded potting soil.

Zones for the dregs of society. Even the most contemptible members of our community need someplace to live

SOF – Sex-Offender Friendly With so many people returning from prison with release orders that forbid them from living withing 1000 ft. of schools, parks and playgrounds, shouldn’t the county designate a zone to accommodate them.

UWB – Uptight White Blight For those obnoxious people who think they should be able to dictate what their neighbor looks like, what their home looks like, and what they do with it. Even child molesters and rapists deserve better neighbors than these. By establishing this zone, they can all spy on and out-conform each other without disturbing the vibrant diversity of people and lifestyles that makes up the rest of our community.

What People Say:

If you haven't read john hardin's blog before, prepare to be shocked. I always am. (I can't help but enjoy it though...at least when I'm not slapping my hands on my computer desk and yelling at him.) He's sort of a local Jon Stewart only his writing hurts more because it is so close to people and places I love. Kym Kemp
...about, On The Money, The Collapsing Middle Class
... I think he really nails it, the middle class is devolving back into the working class. Pretty brilliant, IMO. Juliet Buck, Vermont Commons http://www.vtcommons.org/blog/middle-class-or-first-world-subsistence
BLOGS WE WATCH: John Hardin’s humorous, inappropriate, and sometimes antisocial SoHum blog is a one-of-a-kind feast or famine breadline banquet telling it like it is—or at least how it is through Mr. Hardin’s uniquely original point of view with some off-the-wall poetic licensing and colorful pics tossed in for good measure. For example, how it all went from this to that and how it all came about like the hokey pokey with your right foot out. You get the idea. Caution: this isn’t for everybody, especially those without a bawdy, bawdry, and tacky sense of humor. You know who you are. We liked it. (From the Humboldt Sentinel http://humboldtsentinel.com/2011/12/16/weekly-roundup-for-december-16-2011/)